Four Goan bikers traverse 18-day K2K ride

11 Aug 201805:26am IST

11 Aug 201805:26am IST

The Mapusa-based bikers started from Chandigarh and travelled across 12 States covering a distance of 7,700 kms to reach Kanyakumari

Team Herald

MAPUSA: Four Mapusa-based biking enthusiasts took up a long adventurous ride on their ‘Bullets’ from Kashmir to Kanyakumari (K2K) and are all praise about this challenging experience and the mesmerising view they witnessed on their journey. The 18-day bike ride saw the four bikers travel across 12 States covering a distance of 7,700 kms. The four riders included Damodar Lanjekar, Jalesh Raut, Sagar Niloji and Umesh Tivrekar. They transported their bikes from Goa to Chandigarh by train and embarked on this journey starting on July 20. The bikers kicked off this trip from Chandigarh on their Royal Enfield Classic 500 and Enfield Himalayan.

These four bikers are part of a group known as ‘Café Bullet Goa’. Prior to the trip they got their bikes examined by Hanuman Azgaonkar, a mechanic in Mapusa.

During this trail they made halts at several places including Leh, Kargil, Manali, Jaipur, Pune and Bangalore before reaching Kanyakumari. They came across hilly terrain, bumpy roads, streams of ice-cold water from snow-capped mountains and glacial melts. They covered over 300 kms a day especially in the hilly region while on the highway they crossed around 600-650 kms per day.

Being the most experienced of the three, Sagar took the lead. He has done the K2K trip earlier on two occasions. “Normally we start the trail from Goa but this time we started from Chandigarh. We took the road from Manali and travelled via Rhotang Pass. We also reached an altitude of 18,380 ft at Khardung La, which is the highest motorable road in the world. We went to Kargil and returned to Chandigarh and crossed around ten to twelve States of India. From there we went back to Kanyakumari and finally returned to Goa,” informed Sagar.

Speaking about his experience during the trip, biker Damodar Lanjekar said that they transported their bikes to Chandigarh by train on July 17 and collected their bikes two days later. They flew to Chandigarh from Goa.

“Your fitness and that of your bikes is very important during a long ride like this. Everything went on smoothly except for a small problem in Chandigarh. We express our gratitude to Brahma Motors for taking trouble to cover our expenses during this course of time. I can still recall the view of the valley and the plateaus,” said Lanjekar who believes that it was a challenging experience.

MMC Chairperson, Ryan Braganza congratulated the Mapusa-based riders who rode across the country.

"These bikers have encompassed around ten States and across different climatic conditions. It was nice to hear about their journey and experience during this trip. We are thankful to the Almighty for bringing them back safely to Mapusa,” Braganza said.